


Little Bessie

by aikoa



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sister-Sister Relationship, Which is Understandable, anne gets mad, awww how sweet, but mary only has anne's best interest at heart, catalina did not want to get involved and yet here she is, i really love elizabeth, idk what this is i just got really bored, like alot she's amazing, liz is smol baby™, mary loves elizabeth too and i don't care what anyone has to say against that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:33:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25855168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aikoa/pseuds/aikoa
Summary: Mary had forgotten just how tiring being so utterly dishonest was.***Aka, Elizabeth Tudor is reincarnated as a small child in Mary Tudor's bedroom in the middle of the night and Mary tries (and fails) to keep the whole thing a secret.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I of England & Mary I of England
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	Little Bessie

Since her return, Mary had not particularly been one for staying up much past nightfall, and she still wasn't quite sure why this one night was an exception.

She sat at her desk, calmly and quietly crocheting a little gold crown out of lack of tiredness and pure boredom. A dull light emitted from her lamp, something which she still barely understood. Electric-powered things just didn't make any _sense._

She silently wove the hook through the yellow thread, only breaking concentration when a bright light shone from behind her.

  
Mary sighed, “Katherine, if you’re sneaking downstairs to make stove-s'mores again, would it really suit you so ill to not shine your flashlight into my room?”

The teenager earned no response except for a soft thud, the light began to dim.

“Katherine-!” Mary started again, turning around. She then gasped. Someone lay face down in her carpet, and it certainly was not Howard for the mess of hair concealing her face was not blonde as the other teenager’s hair was and was instead a deep fiery red-

“Elizabeth?” Mary managed to breathe out, jumping out of her chair and moving the girl--who looked no older then five or six-- into her lap as the bright light faded into darkness. She quickly checked for a pulse when the child did not stir and was by God relieved when she found a steady one.  
She layed her sister in her own bed once she deemed her either unconscious or asleep and shut off her desk lamp before climbing under the covers herself.

The last thing her mind fled to before she too fell into slumber was that if the girl was still not lying beside her when she woke up, she just wasn’t sure exactly what she’d do.

  
\-----

Elizabeth was only just stirring when Mary awoke the next morning.  
She let out a gasp that quickly turned into a tearful laugh of glee which awoke the child fully.

“Mary?” asked the child quietly, her bright eyes looking up to her sister, who only nodded with a growing grin. Mary may not have been overly fond of Anne when she had arrived (they’d most certainly grown closer since), but she had loved Elizabeth with all of her heart, in this life and the last.

“Where are we?”

“This is our new home,” Mary responded, “and this is my bedroom.”

“Aren’t you meant to be an angel? Aren't I? Isn't Edward too? Oh, where is Edward” the girl asked, and Mary’s eyes only slightly widened. So it seemed--even as a child-- that Elizabeth seemed to remember everything, or at least some important things, from their old lives.

"Edward has not returned with us just yet," Mary said, Elizabeth replied with a small _'oh'._

"Well what about us?" The child then asked, "Are we alive? Because this is not how I imagined Heaven to be like"

“It is quite complicated, Bess,” Mary stated, “I am not quite sure you’d understand”

“I’m sure I would!” Elizabeth declared, always willing to prove herself, age being no matter.

Mary sighed, but not in an annoyed manner, “We have been reincarnated. Our souls have left our old bodies and joined with new ones, but we still remember everything”  
Elizabeth looked at her utterly confused, Mary laughed again when she saw her face.

“Don’t laugh at me!” The girl ordered with a pout,

“I am not laughing at you,” Mary replied as she climbed out of bed to find a morning outfit, “your face was just too funny.”

Elizabeth’s childish pout only stayed as Mary shut herself in her closet to change. She emerged a few moments later in a peachy sundress to which her sister frowned at.

“That looks odd,” Elizabeth stated,

“Thank you, Bess,” Mary responded sarcastically, “How kind of you.”

“No! I didn’t mean like that!” Elizabeth quickly corrected herself, “Just-- isn’t that mean to be, _longer?_ And… _bigger?”_

“Things have changed,” Mary said, “we can wear whatever we please, now”

“Really?”  
Mary nodded,

“I would like to wear something like that,” Elizabeth declared, then though for a second, “Please?”

“I’m afraid I do not I have anything for your fit,” Mary responded, “We shall have to get you something soon”  
‘We’, yes, Mary assumed it would be proper to announce Elizabeth’s new presence to the others, Anne especially. But then again, what if Elizabeth disappeared in the night? What if this all was a mistake and the child was never meant to be here in the first place? She certainly did not want to get the other’s hopes up only for the girl to vanish the next day.  
No. She’d have to keep Elizabeth a secret for one more night, just to make sure.

“Are we the only ones here?” Liz’s curious voice snapped the teen from her thoughts.

“Uh, well, _no,”_ she didn’t want to _lie_ to the girl, “There are a few other people here.”

“Is Papa here?”

“No!” Mary replied almost too quickly, Elizabeth didn’t seem to notice.

“Is my Mama here?”

Mary bit her lip, unsure how to answer without straightly stating falsehood, “I’m- not sure?”  
Liz once again didn’t seem to notice the questioning tone of her sister’s voice, and only nodded, attempting to conceal her disappointment.

Her brown eyes flicked across the room and eventually landed on the crown Mary had been working on the night previous.  
In a sudden mood change, she took it off of the desk and place it atop her own head with a giggle, which then infected Mary, causing her to laugh as well.

“Did you make this?” She asked, Mary nodded, “Can you teach me?”

“Sure,” Mary replied. There was really no harm in teaching the girl, plus, it would keep her occupied for at least a good part of the morning. And the hooks were starting to dull anyways, she'd be fine.

Grabbing yarn and the two hooks, she couldn’t help but glance out of her window at the bright sun beaming in the sky. ‘ _Someone_ has to be up by now,’ she thought to herself as she carefully instructed her sister on how to weave the hooks through the yarn, and she hoped to the good lord above that no one found out about Bess until the next morning.

“Have you got it?” Mary asked as Elizabeth wove up quickly as if crocheting were second nature to her,

“I think so,” came her reply.

“Alright,” replied Mary, standing and walking to the door, “ Stay here and keep working, and I’ll be right back”  
Liz only hummed in response, not bothering to ask where her sister was going and instead keeping focus on her work in front of her. Mary made sure she shut the door tight but did not bother to lock it lest someone grow suspicious.  
  


* * *

  
As luck would have it, Mary’s own mother Catherine had already grown suspicious. Her daughter was usually an early-riser as she herself was, and now it was nearly midday and Catherine had still not seen the teenager once.

The woman sighed before walking out of the kitchen and up the stairs to where her daughter’s bedroom sat.  
She knocked softly on the door, yet earned to response. Sighing again with furrowed brows she carefully opened the door,  
  
“Mary?” She called into the room, expecting her daughter to be perched somewhere, but instead only coming face to face with a little red-headed girl-  
  


* * *

  
“Mary, if you don’t tell Anne, I’m going to have to myself.”  
Mary had only reached her bedroom only a few second after Catherine had layed her eyes on Elizabeth, and uttered out a single swear.

“No!” Mary cried. Elizabeth had since forgotten her (recently completed) crochet crown and had taken to watching Mary and her mother go back and forth with one another in wondering confusion.

“Why not?” Catherine asked calmly,

“It’s...complicated,”

“Mary-”

“I just can’t tell her right now! Okay?” Mary snapped, looking up at her mother desperately. Catalina only frowned before walking out of the room and back downstairs. Mary groaned.

“What’s going on?” Liz questioned,

“It’s nothing, Bess…” Mary mumbled, grabbing a spare pillow from her bed and burying her face in it. The room descended into silence once more until the sound of footsteps climbed loudly up the stairs.

“Really, Lina,” Anne’s voice spoke out distractedly as she and Catherine entered the bedroom doorway, “What could possibly be so urgent that you pulled me away from-”  
The woman stopped mid-sentence as her dark eyes fell upon her daughter.

“Bessie?” She managed to breathe out, and Elizabeth beamed, hopping up from her spot on the bed and bounding over into the still arms of her mother, who immediately picked her up into her arms, desperate to find out that her darling was actually here, that she was really alive with her once more.

“Mama!”

“Oh my god-” Anne spoke in a shocking hushed tone as tears of pure joy filled her eyes at the simple sight of her beloved child.

“I made you something, Mama” Elizabeth stated, pulling two of the crochet crowns from her sleeve, placing one atop her own had and one atop her mother’s, “Mary taught me how.”

Anne’s eyes then fell upon Mary, who looked up at her, guilt growing it’s way onto her face.

“You knew she was here?” Anne asked the teenager, who hesitantly nodded,

“Why- Why would you keep this a secret from me?” Anne questioned, anger slowly but steadily making itself clearly known in her voice, “She’s my daughter!”

“I needed to be certain!” Mary tried to reason,

“Certain of _what?”_

“That she wouldn’t disappear!” Mary cried, “I didn’t want to tell you only for her to disappear again hours later! I didn’t want to hurt you like that, because contrary to popular believe, I _don’t_ hate you that much. Not anymore.”

Anne’s rage died down at the teen’s words, and she swallowed thickly.  
“Yes, well… thank you, I suppose..”  
Mary only nodded again in response, burying her face in the pillow once more.

“Do you like your crown, Mama?” Elizabeth asked as they swiftly exited the bedroom

“It’s lovely, Bessie” Anne confirmed, “Thank you”.  
  


Catherine looked down at her own daughter in pity. It was certainly not fun being at the blast-end of Anne’s fury, she knew that herself first-hand.

“Do you want me to leave you be?” Catherine asked quietly.

“Please,” Mary managed to respond. Catherine nodded and left herself, shutting the door softly beside her.

Mary only stood and collapsed on her bed, groaning again.

**Author's Note:**

> no, i do not know how to crochet, i just thought it would be a nice alternative to needlework which woman would usually be learning how to do by a little bit older then Elizabeth's age.


End file.
